My Foray into My Midwestern Roots

How Does Your Name Rank?

The Social Security Administration Popular Baby Names Website is a site to be checked out to see what the most popular baby names are. You can also scroll down and input your birth year to see what the most popular names were the year you were born. Or insert your first name to see what the popularity of it is.

How this all played out for me – 40+ years ago (no, I’m not telling my birth year!) the 5 most popular baby names for girls were: Mary, Lisa, Susan, Linda, Karen – which explains why I had lots of people in my class with those names! For boys the names were: Michael, David, John, James, and Robert. In 2007 my name (Wendy) ranked at #378. The year I was born it made it in the top 100. I couldn’t tell though as there was no one in my class with the same name until I got to Junior High. The most exciting time was when I was a sophomore and there were three of us named Wendy in my English class. One from each grade. I also have a cousin (born several years after me) with the same first name. For me it’s always interesting to hear what the middle name is and put the two together to see how it sounds.

In the 1960s (decade of my birth) – the top five female and male names were: Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen, and Kimberly and Michael, David, John, James, and Robert. The decade of my mother’s birth her name was the most popular girl’s name! My dad’s was number 24. My grandmother, Vesta, was born before 1900 and the furthest back I could get was 1908 (ten years after her birth). At that time, her name ranked #338. I haven’t encountered anyone born in the last 30 years with that name (probably longer!). It didn’t even make the top 1000 in the last 40 years. That same year – 1908 – my grandfather’s name (Glen) was #150. In 2003 it ranked #964.

This site also lists the most popular names for twins. Jacob/Joshua; Matthew/Michael; Daniel/David; Isaac/Isaiah; Ella/Emma; Madison/Morgan; Taylor/Tyler (I would just give up on this one!); and of course a little further down is Faith/Hope! In my graduating class there was Teri & Tina (Theresa and Christina) and Kristi and Kandi. Both of these sets were identical – mirror images of each other. For one set one twin actually wore glasses for awhile before both got contacts. The other set used to fool the teachers on who was actually in the class – one had a mole on their cheek – that was one way to tell the difference.

There is also a category of baby names and city names. Alexandria, Aurora, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Dayton – the list goes on. Quite interesting!

When my oldest daughter was born, the state’s most popular girl names were: Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda, Crystal and Melissa. Her name didn’t make the top 100. My 2nd daughter’s name didn’t make the top 100 either. My son’s name made the top 5. My youngest daughter’s name was #30 in the state the year she was born.